Northwestern
12-1
Loyola (Md.)
1-10
Northwestern Improves to 12-1 With 74-59 Win Over Loyola (Md.)
12/27/2015 9:47:00 PM | Men's Basketball
McIntosh tallies career-high 33 points with 8 assists
EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) -- Without Alex Olah, Northwestern is going to need a little bit more from the rest of its roster.
On Sunday, Bryant McIntosh delivered.
McIntosh scored a career-high 33 points and Northwestern rallied without Olah to beat Loyola Maryland 74-59 for its ninth straight win.
Scottie Lindsey added 14 points for the Wildcats (12-1), who set a school record with 13 home wins in a row.
But the victory was overshadowed by the news that Olah would miss the game with a left foot injury. More than an hour before the game, Northwestern announced the absence of the senior center, who sat on the Wildcats' bench wearing a walking boot on his left leg.
Northwestern coach Chris Collins said the team would take it ''day by day'' with Olah but confirmed he will miss the Wildcats' Big Ten opener Wednesday at Nebraska.
Collins said Olah was fine after Northwestern's previous game - a win Monday over Sacred Heart - but felt worse in the ensuing days before getting an MRI on Saturday that revealed what Collins called a ''stress reaction.''
''We'll reevaluate after (Wednesday),'' Collins said. ''The main thing is we don't want to do anything that's going to jeopardize. . We've got 18 games left, so if it means we've got to hold him out one or two extra games to get him back healthy, that's what we'll do.''
Olah is averaging 12.8 points, including a team-high 21 points against Sacred Heart to go over 1,000 points for his career.
Without Olah, Loyola took a 9-0 lead to start the game before a Lindsey basket with 14:11 remaining gave Northwestern its first points. The Greyhounds led by as many as 14 during the first half.
Northwestern rallied in the second half and tied it at 42-all with 13:07 remaining on Aaron Falzon's 3-pointer. The Wildcats took their first lead on a McIntosh basket with 11:44 to play. A McIntosh layup with 7:12 to go pushed the Wildcats' advantage to 11 during a half when Northwestern switched to a zone defense and shot 65.6 percent from the field.
''They went zone and we just didn't have an answer for it,'' Loyola coach G.G. Smith said. ''I thought the turning point in the game was not that we couldn't score against the zone - we couldn't get any stops.''
Loyola (1-10), which lost its eighth straight, was led by Andre Walker's 15 points and Franz Rassman's 11.
''Basically, you just can't get too high on a lead,'' Walker said. ''A lead is never safe, especially playing a Big Ten team.''
Northwestern matched the school's best 13-game start, equaling the 1930-31 season. The Wildcats' 12th regular-season win against non-conference opponents also matched a school mark, tying the 2009-10 team.
They'll have to carry that strong play into the conference season without two projected preseason starters. Vic Law hasn't played and will miss the entire season because of a torn labrum in his left shoulder.
''Going forward, we just talked about how the next guy up has to step up, and we all have to kind of collectively pick up what he brought to the table, which is going to be tough just because he did so much for us,'' McIntosh said.
Northwestern Notes vs. Loyola (Md.) – Dec. 27, 2015• Northwestern improves to 2-0 all-time against Loyola (Md.).
• The victory was the 13th consecutive at home for Northwestern, setting a school record. The previous best was 12 in a row from 1933 through 1934.
• The Wildcats improve to 12-1, matching their best 13-game start to a season in school history. The 1930-31 team started 12-1 en route to a 16-1 season and a Big Ten championship.
• Northwestern's win was its 12th of the year against nonconference foes during the regular season. The total matches the school record originally posted by the 2009-10 squad.
• Bryant McIntosh posted a career-high 33 points. It is his second 30-point game of the season and the mark surpassed his previous best of 32 points in an overtime win over Columbia on Nov. 20.
• McIntosh also finished with 8 assists. It is the seventh time this season that he has posted 8 or more assists in a game. McIntosh entered the contest ranked 13th in the nation with an average of 6.8 assists per game.
• The Wildcats came into the game ranked 19th in the nation with an average of 10.2 3-point field goals per game but missed their first six shots from behind the arch and were just 1-of-7 from 3-point range in the first half. However, NU hit 7-of-10 attempts from distance in the second half to finish 8-of-17.
• Northwestern was held to 22 points in the first half, its lowest point total in a half this season. The previous low was 28 on two occasions. The Wildcats responded by exploding for 52 points in the second half, just three shy of their season high for a half. NU scored 55 points in the second half vs. Sacred Heart on Dec. 21.
• Senior center Alex Olah missed the game due to a left foot injury that will sideline him indefinitely. Olah had started the team's first 12 games and was averaging 12.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocked shots per game.
• Freshman center Dererk Pardon made his Northwestern debut. Pardon was intending to redshirt this season but that was lifted due to the injury to Olah. Pardon finished with 6 points, 4 rebounds and a blocked shot, all in the second half.
